Board determines tuition for fall 2016

Board determines tuition for fall 2016

Board determines tuition for fall 2016

Undergraduate resident tuition increased by $250

By: Cristóbal McKinney | 2016.07.20 | 12:22 pm

On July 18, the Board of Regents, State of Iowa, approved a $250 increase in tuition for resident undergraduate students for the fall of 2016. This is $50 less than the proposal from the University of Iowa and the first increase for resident undergraduate students at the UI in three years.

“I respect the board’s decision and understand the concerns of Iowa families,” says University of Iowa President Bruce Harreld. “We’ve had a collaborative budgeting process that involved the deans, unit leaders, and shared governance leaders, and we’ll return to that process to determine which strategic initiatives we can fund and which will likely have to wait.”

Undergraduate resident base tuition and fees for the 2016–17 academic year will be $8,575, though total costs will depend partly on the student’s major. The UI remains one of the most affordable options for students, with the second-lowest undergraduate tuition in the Big Ten—more than $3,000 less than the average 2015–16 Big Ten tuition, which was $12,000.

“Certain majors or programs are more expensive to provide than others,” says Provost P. Barry Butler. “To remain a leader in these programs, we need top-notch faculty, state-of-the-art laboratory space and research equipment, and dedicated support staff. Differential tuition allows us to more fairly distribute the cost to the students studying in those programs.”

Tuition will increase as follows:

Undergraduate resident: $250

Undergraduate nonresident: $400

Business lower-division resident: $450

Business lower-division nonresident: $600

Business upper-division resident: $650

Business upper-division nonresident: $800

Engineering second-year resident: $450

Engineering second-year nonresident: $600

Engineering upper-division resident: $600

Engineering upper-division nonresident: $750

Graduate resident: $300

Graduate nonresident: $400

Professional resident: $300

Professional nonresident: $400

These increases are in addition to the $200 increase for resident undergraduates for the fall of 2016 that the Board of Regents approved in December 2015.

Harreld says that, indexed for inflation, the UI spends about the same amount per student as it did 20 years ago.

“What has changed is who pays for the University of Iowa,” says Harreld. “The proportion of state funding in the General Education Fund has dramatically declined over the past 15 years. This is not an indictment upon our legislators as they have many competing priorities; it is simply a statement of fact.”

About two-thirds of the UI’s general fund revenue comes from tuition (62.5 percent), whereas state appropriations cover slightly less than one-third (31.5 percent). Fifteen years ago, these figures were reversed, and state appropriations covered two thirds of revenue: In fiscal year 2001, state appropriations accounted for 63.7 percent of general education funding at Iowa’s public universities, with tuition accounting for 30.6 percent.

This graph shows what percentage of Iowa’s public university general education funds is covered by state appropriations, tuition, and other sources. State appropriations have declined, and tuition has increased proportionately. Image courtesy of Board of Regents, State of Iowa.

The UI requested a $4.5 million increase in state funding for fiscal year 2017, but due to budgeting constraints, the Iowa General Assembly voted in April to appropriate only $1.3 million.